This invention relates to a holding element for holding articles of elongate shape such as pipes or wire harnesses on a member such as an automobile body.
Support structures for mounting elongate articles such as automobile fuel pipes or brake pipes or wire harnesses on a vehicle body should preferably have vibration-absorbing ability in order to prevent vehicle body vibration being transmitted to the pipe etc. Conventionally, with the object of such vibration-prevention, the method generally adopted was to effect mounting on a holding element with an anti-vibration rubber element wound around the pipe etc. Since this method is laborious, it is desirable to give the holding element itself anti-vibration characteristics. With this in view, Laid-Open Japanese Patent Publication No. H.9-250517 teaches conferring resilience on a holding element for a pipe etc. by making it of a construction in which hard resin and soft resin are joined. However, with this construction, there are the problems that the construction of the metal mould becomes complicated and, depending on the method of moulding, the number of manufacturing steps is increased and, furthermore, since two types of material are employed, manufacturing costs are increased.
In contrast, U.S. Pat. No. 5,458,303 discloses a construction constituting a holding clip suitable for pipes and the like for holding fuel pipes, in which a hollow part that confers a cushioning action on a pipe holding part is provided, this pipe holding part being joined to a holding base through a resilient joining element. Also, U.S. Pat. No. 5,588,683 discloses a similar clip for a pipe in which a pipe holding part is joined to a support body through a hollow part. All these clips are designed with the aim of preventing to the utmost extent transmission of vibration from the vehicle body etc. to the pipe when an elongate article such as a pipe is supported. The holding clip for pipes for example disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,458,303, due to constructional limitations, is restricted as to the number of holding parts such as pipes that can be provided; the limit in the embodiment of this publication is the provision of one pipe holding part, making a total of two, on each side of the supporting base. In the case of the holding clip for pipes and the like disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,588,683, a construction is shown in which four pipe holding parts are arranged in a row; however, there can be a marked difference in regard to vibration screening ability between the pipe holding parts in the middle of the row and pipe holding parts at the ends of the row.